Aaron Berkman

Aaron Berkman was born in Hartford, Connecticut. From 1916 to 1918 he attended the Connecticut League of Art Students, founded by Charles Noel Flagg, Connecticut's official portrait painter. He attended the Hartford Art School from 1919 to 1921, alongside his fellow student and lifelong friend, Milton Avery. He studied on scholarship at the Museum Art School of Boston from 1921 to 1924, then traveled through Europe for two years (1924–25). He spent time in France, Italy, Spain, Holland and Belgium. In 1929, during the Depression, he moved to New York City, continuing a friendship and painting relationship with Milton Avery. He married Victoria Artese in 1931. he earned a directors' salary of $23.50 per week. In charge of a 17-member WPA artist faculty, he served as director, art teacher, and lecturer on art history. He received fellowships to Yaddo in 1956, and the Huntington Hartford Foundation (Pacific Palisades, California) in 1958. Maine while he spent other summers painting in Rockport, and Gloucester, Massachusetts, Vermont, the Connecticut shore, and the Adirondacks in New York State. Most of his work, however, was done in New York City. == Exhibitions ==

During 1926–1928, Berkman had one man shows at the Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut; Babcock Galleries, New York; and Grace Home Galleries, Boston, Mass. He had additional one-man exhibitions at Associated American Artists, NYC, in 1945; Erick Newhouse Galleries, NYC, 1952; Babcock Galleries, NYC, 1954; Kaufman Art Gallery, NYC, in 1945, 1952, 1962 and 1966. The group exhibitions included the Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York; The Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts; A.C.A. Gallery, New York; John Myers Gallery 21, New York; Norlyst Gallery, New York; Morgan Memorial, Hartford, Conn.; The Riverdale Museum, New York; The American Watercolor Society, New York; Roerich Museum, New York; The New School, New York; Bronx, New York Museum of the Arts; the W.P.A. Artists 50th Anniversary Exhibition; Audubon Artists, NYC; The New York WPA Artists Exhibition at Passaic County College, Passaic, New Jersey; Hudson River Gallery, Ossining, New York; The Borough Presidents Gallery, New York City; The Monhegan Museum, Monhegan, Maine; and The Nassau County Museum of Art, Roslyn Harbor, New York. == Publications ==

• American Mercury “Art as Propaganda” 1932 debate with Jacob Burke • American Spectator “Sociology of the Comic Strip” 1936 • “Art and Space,” 1948, published by Social Sciences Publishers (LCCN 49007350) • “The Functional Line in Painting,” 1952, published by Thomas Yoseloff Publishers (LCCN 57006909) • Columnist: Art News “Amateur Standing” 1955-60 New York City • WPA Art Then 1934-1943 And Now 1960-1977 • Process and Promise (Art & Education Community at the 92nd Street Y) 2006 • Infamous New York (Reginald Marsh and artists) The Nassau County Museum of Art 2006 == See also ==